Hebron settlers threaten retaliation after Israeli police evict them

Barak heads a small, centrist faction in a government coalition that is otherwise dominated by hard-line parties sympathetic to Jewish settlers, who are intent on cementing Israel's control over the West Bank.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, said the settler eviction "shakes the stability of the coalition."

Settlers warn of retaliatory attacks

Hebron settlers are among the most militant in the West Bank, territory they believe God promised to Jews.

After Wednesday's raid, one of the most militant settler leaders, Baruch Marzel, warned of retaliatory attacks.

"No one wants more violence," Marzel said, but added that "when the racist government that doesn't let the Jews buy a house in the land of Israel ... I think violence is a reaction to the racist government."

The raid came shortly after Netanyahu announced new moves to try to save unauthorized settler construction in the West Bank from demolition.

The prime minister said he asked the attorney general to find a way to save the unauthorized Ulpana outpost from its Supreme Court-ordered demolition. Five apartment buildings are to be razed by May 1.

Netanyahu said he also plans to supply the necessary approvals to legalize three other enclaves settlers built without government authorization.

Efforts to restart peace talks

About 500,000 Jews have moved to the West Bank and east Jerusalem since Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Mideast war.

Palestinians want both territories as the heart of their hoped-for state and see all settlement there as undercutting their aspirations to statehood. The international community opposes all settlement construction.

Settlements in occupied territory have been the key sticking point since Netanyahu became prime minister three years ago.

Negotiations have been largely frozen during that time, though Netanyahu will hold a rare meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad after the Jewish Passover holiday ends in late April, officials on both sides said. US Mideast envoy David Hale is in the region trying to get peace efforts back on track.

Palestinian officials said Fayyad would present a letter asking to resume peace talks based on several conditions Netanyahu has rejected in the past. They include basing border talks on lines Israel held before capturing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967 and recognizing east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

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